Leviticus 20:22-22:16

English Standard Version

You Shall Be Holy

²²^(A)“You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not ^(B)vomit you out. ²³^(C)And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them. ²⁴But ^(D)I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land ^(E)flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, ^(F)who has separated you from the peoples. ²⁵^(G)You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. ²⁶^(H)You shall be holy to me, ^(I)for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

²⁷^(J)“A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be ^(K)stoned with stones; ^(L)their blood shall be upon them.”

Holiness and the Priests

21 And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, ^(M)No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, ²except for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, ³or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may make himself unclean). ⁴He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself. ⁵^(N)They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body. ⁶They shall be holy to their God and ^(O)not profane the name of their God. For they offer the Lord's food offerings, ^(P)the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy. ⁷^(Q)They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled, neither shall they marry a woman ^(R)divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. ⁸You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for ^(S)I, the Lord, who sanctify you, ^(T)am holy. ⁹And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring, profanes her father; ^(U)she shall be burned with fire.

¹⁰^(V)“The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, ^(W)shall not let the hair of his head hang loose nor tear his clothes. ¹¹He shall not ^(X)go in to any dead bodies nor make himself unclean, even for his father or for his mother. ¹²^(Y)He shall not go out of the sanctuary, lest he ^(Z)profane the sanctuary of his God, for the ^(AA)consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him: I am the Lord. ¹³And he shall take a wife in her virginity.^[a] ¹⁴A widow, ^(AB)or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take as his wife a virgin^[b] of his own people, ¹⁵that he may not profane his offspring among his people, for ^(AC)I am the Lord who sanctifies him.”

¹⁶And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷“Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may ^(AD)approach to offer the bread of his God. ¹⁸For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man ^(AE)blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face ^(AF)or a limb too long, ¹⁹or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, ²⁰or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a ^(AG)defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or ^(AH)crushed testicles. ²¹No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to ^(AI)offer the Lord's food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. ²²He may eat the bread of his God, both of ^(AJ)the most holy and of the ^(AK)holy things, ²³but he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not ^(AL)profane my sanctuaries,^[c] ^(AM)for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.” ²⁴So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.

22 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to Aaron and his sons so that they ^(AN)abstain from the holy things of the people of Israel, which they ^(AO)dedicate to me, so that they do not ^(AP)profane my holy name: I am the Lord. ³Say to them, ‘If any one of all your offspring throughout your generations approaches the holy things that the people of Israel dedicate to the Lord, while ^(AQ)he has an uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from my presence: I am the Lord. ⁴None of the offspring of Aaron who has a leprous disease or a ^(AR)discharge may eat of the holy things ^(AS)until he is clean. ^(AT)Whoever touches anything that is unclean through contact with the dead or ^(AU)a man who has had an emission of semen, ⁵and ^(AV)whoever touches a swarming thing by which he may be made unclean or ^(AW)a person from whom he may take uncleanness, whatever his uncleanness may be— ⁶the person who touches such a thing shall be unclean until the evening and shall not eat of the holy things unless he has ^(AX)bathed his body in water. ⁷When the sun goes down he shall be clean, and afterward he may eat of the holy things, because ^(AY)they are his food. ⁸^(AZ)He shall not eat what dies of itself or is torn by beasts, and so make himself unclean by it: I am the Lord.’ ⁹They shall therefore keep my charge, ^(BA)lest they bear sin for it and die thereby when they profane it: ^(BB)I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

¹⁰^(BC)“A lay person shall not eat of a holy thing; no foreign guest of the priest or hired worker shall eat of a holy thing, ¹¹but if a priest buys a slave^[d] as his property for money, the slave^[e] may eat of it, and ^(BD)anyone born in his house may eat of his food. ¹²If a priest's daughter marries a layman, she shall not eat of the contribution of the holy things. ¹³But if a priest's daughter is widowed or divorced and has no child and ^(BE)returns to her father's house, ^(BF)as in her youth, she may eat of her father's food; yet no lay person shall eat of it. ¹⁴^(BG)And if anyone eats of a holy thing unintentionally, he shall add ^(BH)the fifth of its value to it and give the holy thing to the priest. ¹⁵They ^(BI)shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, which they contribute to the Lord, ¹⁶and so cause them ^(BJ)to bear iniquity and guilt, by eating their holy things: ^(BK)for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.”